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news
Climbing Box Hill (CC-BY-2.0 Sizbut:Flickr)Box Hill’s Zig Zag Road to be one-way only – uphill – this Easter weekend
Box Hill’s Zig Zag Road, the UK's most popular cycling climb according to Strava, will be one-way only this Easter weekend as part of a traffic management exercise that may be repeated over the bank holidays in May if it proves successful.
The National Trust, which owns and manages the beauty spot, says that traffic including cyclists will only be allowed to head uphill on the road between the junction with the Old London Road at Mickleham to the Smith and Western restaurant.
The most popular way for cyclists to tackle Box Hill is as part of an anti-clockwise circuit including an ascent of Zig Zag Road – just as the sport’s biggest stars did during the London 2012 Olympic road races.
Making Box Hill one-way on what is likely to be a very busy weekend is a good thing for cyclists – there won’t be motor vehicles heading down the road, which also means that drivers going up it will have more room than usual to overtake.
In response to a Twitter user who said, “I wish it would stay like that permanently,” National Trust countryside manager for Box Hill, Andrew Wright, said: “We'll see how it goes, but might do it again for the May bank holiday weekends if successful.”
> The National Trust loves cycling - and they've painted Box Hill to prove it
Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
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24 comments
I'm glad that I try to avoid Box like the plague. Totally pointless trying to head to any Park on a bank holiday.
So, there was even less road space than usual, and it was back to two-way, with cars coming down, by early afternoon? This doesn't sound like much of a success.
Wonder when the NT will realise that cyclists are a far better source of revenue than those who drive?
Well this was brilliantly executed today as you might expect in the UK.
With the one way system in place and car parks full by around 9:30am, drivers were directed by stewards to park their car at the side of the road on the climb, so you then had drivers opening their doors and pedestrians clogging up the road while you're heading up the climb. Useless.
on the positive side - they did at least correctly identify the top from the bottom of the hill!
To answer my own question (how will we get down the hill?) we’ll take mountain bikes and ride back down on one of the bridlleways.
My point is that anyone without detailed local knowledge is going to be put off riding a bike. This change is good for visiting sport cyclists and that’s fine, but it's actually deterring ordinary people from choosing to cycle to Box hill over the weekend, and that's not a good thing surely?
Down to Pebble Combe, turn left, turn left again and go down to Juniper Hall. Nice circular ride that one, none of it too steep or technical.
All it needs is a couple of signposts saying "return to Westhumble / bottom of Box Hill".
The article is right, the vast majority of riders do Box Hill from west to east and if it can help with the flow of traffic (all traffic inc cars) then that's a good thing. Might even encourage some drivers to park up slightly further afield and walk for a bit!
Whilst I still applaud the National Trust for taking this stance, I agree with what you're saying.
Where I lived in the Alpes for example, it was the norm for mountain roads to be closed entirely to cars one Sunday a month.
Whilst the attitude in this country probably means that this will never happen, this decision by the National Trust is at least a tentative step in the right direction.
It's really not that difficult - if you can find Box Hill you can follow the loop around and turn it into a multi-cafe/ice cream excursion - Box Hill cafe, Destination Bike in Box Hill village, Headley Cricket pitch car park cafe, then Denbies (Rykers will be over-run with motor bikes) and La Musette in Dorking itself. Lodgebottom Road/Headley Lane that returns you to the foot of Box Hill is one of the nicer lanes around too.
Whilst this is a great idea which I fully support, the focus is clearly only on sports cyclists. What about ordinary people who might want to cycle up (and down) the hill? This weekend I might choose to ride with the family up to Box Hill from Dorking. How do I cycle back down again?
maybe you could choose to ride up any of the dozens of hills in the area instead or even, choose a different weekend?
sports cyclists also like to ride down btw...
Backwards or after midnight...
No more Box Hill reps anymore
.
That said, I think it would be a common sense move to restrict the flow to one way - the right decision to take.
Just loop round, it's only about 7 or 8 miles.
damn I thought they were gathering them all at the top for a cull
Brilliant.
Interesting idea, worth a try - although it might be tricky to stop cyclists who haven't heard about it going against the flow.
There might be a good case for doing this each weekend, or even closing the road to motor traffic for 1-2 hours each Saturday and Sunday (at least the stretch without any houses on it). While it could inconvenience some drivers, it might draw concentrate cycling around that 'window' and leave drivers with a quieter road for the rest of the day.
LOL at Box Hill.
^^^ what he said
I don't get it
Good idea
Great idea, would like to see more councils think like this.
I would like to see any councils think like this, the decision was taken by the National Trust not the local council.
Well done National Trust.
In my day it was uphill both ways
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